Crude prices fall ahead of EIA report

Crude oil prices fell Tuesday on demand concerns ahead of Wednesday’s Energy Information Administration US inventories report, which is expected to show that crude oil and gasoline stockpiles grew last week and despite an upcoming OPEC special meeting where the cartel will likely cut production quotas.

November contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude, which expired at the end of the trading day, dropped $3.36 to $70.89 per barrel, while the new front-month December contract fell $2.09 to $72.18 per barrel.

In afternoon trade, Nymex November gasoline futures were down 3 cents to $1.70 per gallon and December heating oil was down 4 cents to $2.19 per gallon while January natural gas dropped 10 cents to $7.21 per million British thermal units.

Most base metals prices fell Tuesday.

December copper was down 11 cents to $2.01 per pound in New York while three-month copper dropped $220 to $4,500 per tonne.

Among other industrial metals, zinc was down $40 to $1,165 per tonne while lead dropped $50 to $1,370 per tonne and aluminium was $51 lower to $2,080 per tonne but nickel added about $150 to trade in a range around $10,700/$10,705 per tonne.

Precious metals prices were also mixed, with December gold down $22 to $768 per troy ounce in New York as January platinum dropped 80 cents to $891.70 per troy ounce, but December silver added 39 cents to $10.08 per troy ounce.

Wheat prices fell on the Chicago Board of Trade, with December corn down 7 cents to $4.11 per bushel while December wheat fell 14 cents to $5.49 per bushel and November soybeans dropped 21 cents to $9.08 per bushel.

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